-Dining Pavilion, Camp Half-Blood; Dinner Time-

~Unit Leader Malantha's Point of View~

I stretched out my arms with a yawn. We have only been here for barely half a day and many things have happened.

Considering all of us unit leaders as well as Kosmos are here together, it's no wonder fighting has occurred. I wasn't expecting Charis to be the one involved in the fight with a camper, but from what I gathered Charis wasn't the one who started it.

Other than the few verbal arguments that Kosmos has started with some of the camp counselors, we haven't had much trouble in our relations with Camp Half-Blood. As long as Kosmos doesn't provoke anyone else, there shouldn't be any more problems. Although with his occupation and the methods that he uses, he might accidently traumatize the campers.

I sometimes wonder why Chaos decided to let Kosmos come along as I have witnessed the aftermath of some of his assassinations. The state of the corpses gave me the chills. I've been around death before and given who I'm the child of, I shouldn't be too scared of the dead. With Kosmos' victims, I often question how he does it.

I'm the leader of unit 2. Unit 2 specializes on abilities, both born and given. I have never seen any kind of ability that allows someone to do that to someone else. The Assassin of Chaos scares me. And what really scared me was that the one time I could sense something from him was when he was asked to come to Camp Half-Blood.

That doesn't fill me with confidence with this mission. Something bad is going to happen and Kosmos knows it too.

"Malantha." I stopped walking to the dining pavilion when I heard my name.

"Hello, Charis." I greeted with a smile.

She returned the gesture. "How was your shift on patrolling the border?"

I sighed, rolling my shoulders to relieve the tension. "Exhausting. Earth's gravity is starting to get to me, I think." I felt bad lying to Charis. It wasn't a full lie as the gravity on Earth is heavier than Planet TO and the other planets we mainly go to.

The truth is that being back on Earth is unsettling. I spent my life here, and when we arrived, I almost wanted to rip off my hooded cloak and go back to my family. After knowing what happened to the closest person to me who suffered so much in the last war, I have fought myself every time I get a glimpse of them to not reveal myself.

"Makes me wonder what will happen after this mission."

"What was that, Malantha?" Charis' soft voice startled me.

"Oh! Um..."

The unit 4 leader laughed. "Don't worry. I know how you feel." Her wistful tone made me wonder if I wasn't the only one who was from Earth. First Kosmos and now Charis? How many of us were from Earth? How many of us could be demigods?

"What's got you so deep in thought?" Milos' voice was exhaustion-filled. His clothes seemed a bit ruffled as if-

"Did you just wake up, Milos? Weren't on border patrol before Malantha?" Charis' sounded far too amused for this late in the day.

Before Milos could snap back as no one wants to witness a sleep-deprived unit leader (or a stressed out head commander; we don't talk about that mission or the aftermath), I stepped in his defense as I was feeling tired too. "Wait until it's your turn to patrol, then see how you feel."

She frowned. "Did something happen on your patrols?" Charis asked, looking between us.

We shook our heads. "No."

"There were some monster gatherings before we came to Earth. The fact that there's a war coming and no one here knew about it until now? It's unnerving. I was prepared for anything to happen on the outside of the borders of the camp, and there was nothing. Some of the campers and counselors have checked the golden fleece and magical borders with no reported issues. There's nothing wrong." My grim words echoed between the three of us. The anticipation of this war is starting to show.

"The anticipation is worse than a crisis." Vernandos announced his presence, coming up behind Milos who jumped.

"Don't do that when I'm tense and ready to punch something." Milos snapped, stepping away from the Unit 3 leader.

"Sorry." Vernandos apologized, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.

"It's fine." The unit 5 leader murmured his reply, looking away. "This whole situation is slowly starting to weigh on me. Why are we even here?"

"Because Chaos asked us to be here." We looked towards the woods to see Hesper approaching. Once she reached our loose circle, she placed her hands on her hips. "You dare to question him?"

"Leave them alone, Hesper." Head Commander Nyke said as he appeared behind the Unit 1 leader.

"Head Commander." We greeted him respectively with a small head bow.

Nyke grunted. "How many times do I need to tell you to stop with the bowing?" He rubbed his neck, looking away from us.

Charis and I started laughing, Vernandos was shaking his head with a sigh, Milos snorted, and even Hesper seemed amused. "Apologizes, Sir. We shall remember that for next time."

"Don't sass me, Hesper. It ruins your cold and detached attitude." Nyke smirked.

Milos choked. "Are you crazy?!"

"We might need a new Head Commander." Vernandos commented.

"Vernandos." Charis reprimanded, hitting his arm lightly.

"He's not wrong." I laughed, watching Hesper to see what she would do.

"Nyke!" The call broke the tension that was brewing between the two leaders. Annabeth Chase was walking towards our group standing off to the side on the outside of the pavilion.

"Yes, Daughter of Athena?" Nyke asked.

She huffed, placing her hands on her hips. "I have the training schedule finished on my end."

"Great! We can-"

"However, the other counselors are asking about the abilities of you and the other unit leaders. I agree with them as I want to know what all of you are capable of to ensure the training will go well." Annabeth did have a point. There was a problem with her request.

Nyke laughed nervously. "Sorry, Daughter of Athena. I can tell you what we specialize in, however, we are forbidden to reveal our abilities."

Annabeth frowned. "Forbidden? Because we are not a part of the army?"

"Uh, not quite." Charis spoke. "It's not that. We are forbidden from speaking of ourselves."

"What do you mean by 'speaking of ourselves'?"

Before anyone could answer, a commotion broke out in the dining pavilion. We looked at each other before running inside. The sight that greeted us wasn't what anyone was expecting.

"Come on, you need to eat." A demigod no older than twelve urged, tugging on Kosmos' arm. Chaos' Assassin stood on the other side of the dining pavilion, not moving from the force of the girl's strength.

"I told you, Daughter of Demeter. I came here to ensure you got back safely. My purpose here is complete." Kosmos said, voice as emotionless as always.

The girl pouted and stopped her tugging. "Please, Xa-Kosmos. You need to eat too, don't you?"

"Kasey, what are you doing?" The counselor of Demter's cabin asked, looking uneasy about the situation.

"But, Miranda-"

"You can't force someone to do something that they don't want to do."

"Katie!" Kasey crossed her arms, frowning unhappily. "Kosmos still needs to eat, right?" She directed the question to the assassin.

Kosmos said nothing at first. He didn't even move. "I do not require food like humans do. I have no need to be here." He stepped back and turned around to leave.

"Xan-Kosmos!" Kasey moved towards the assassin. Some campers held her back.

Kosmos stopped, tilting his head. "Ah. I almost forgot." He reached into his cloak, walking across the pavilion towards us.

Everyone he passed tensed up, preparing for a fight. He ends up stopping in front of Annabeth.

Kosmos' hand comes out of his cloak with a few pieces of paper. He offers it to the daughter of Athena. "These are from Lord Chaos. It is everything you will need to finish the training schedule."

Annabeth accepts the pages without a word. Then, as silent as a shadow, the assassin walks out of the dining pavilion and disappears into the gentle breeze.

"What just happened?" A Hermes camper asked.

"Commander Nyke, what has the assassin been doing?" Chiron's tail swished back and forth nervously as he looked towards the leader.

We all knew the answer. No one knows what the assassin does when he disappears. Not even Commander Nyke knows where he goes.

"What Chaos' assassin does is not our business." Was all Nyke said as an answer.

"Are you questioning Lord Chaos, Chiron?" Hesper asked, stepping next to Nyke.

I noticed Charis' head tilting to the side as she watched the two interact. I frown at her. Hopefully she isn't thinking about setting the two of them up on a date or something. Charis has a habit of involving herself in others' love lives.

"No, not at all." Chiron replied after the tense moment of Hesper's question. "My apologies." He bowed his head.

"He has a point." Milos stated.

"Milos-"

The Unit 5 leader glared at Hesper. "No, we all know how Kosmos is. Nyke might still think there's something good in him, but we all know the truth. Kosmos is a loose cannon that doesn't listen to anyone. Not even Lord Chaos. No one can control him."

"You make it sound like he's an animal."

"Kasey?" The Demeter head counselor asked the younger girl.

"Xa-Kosmos is here to help. Why are you treating him like this?"

"Kasey, right?" Charis asked, kneeling down in front of the girl.

"Yes." She answered with a frown.

"Why are you having trouble calling him by his name?"

Kasey stepped back, tensing up. "No reason."

Before anyone could say anything more, Commander Nyke sighed. "How about we eat and then we can have a counsel meeting."

In the end, the conversation was dropped with a few hesitant nods and the thought of food. Soon the dining pavilion was filled with quiet conversations and the sound of eating. 

Look I'm not going to apologize for the long wait (August 8th was the last update? Oops...), I have had a lot going on. My sister is getting married this year, I got a new job (I work with HORSES!!!), am waiting to hear back about a promotion, and I decided to watch One Piece. All of that is time consuming. 

I also want to say that I fell out of this fandom. Percy Jackson isn't my focus at all anymore. I started this story a long time ago and I want to finish this book, but I don't know how well this is going to go. 

My plan is to publish a chapter every Saturday. I do have chapter 10 written and I briefly started writing chapter 11. I will publish chapter 10 next Saturday and we will see how it goes from there. 

I can't promise anything as I am only writing this out of pure spite and will. I have spite, not much will. Motivation is not my strong suit right now. It took me about 5 hours to write a little over 1,000 words. 

Writing this has been tough. 

If you are still reading this, I thank you. I hope this chapter is good enough for you. I am still going strong with the storyline, I am just having trouble with the details of how to write each chapter to follow said storyline. 

I truly thank you for taking the time to read this. I will be publishing the next chapter next Saturday. 

Until then, 

Later!

~MsPenguingirl1234.

Published: March 18th, 2023. 

(This is the first thing that I have published on here in 2023...)